Radio is a very popular entertainment source today. It is used in many locations—in the home, in the automobile, at the office, and on the go. Sources available today include broadcast (AM and FM), Internet, and satellite. However, radio functions have been fairly constant for years.
New technologies have become available in recent years. These include less expensive tuners, less expensive memory, and better quality analog to digital conversion. These technologies make possible an enhanced radio system.
Some improvements have been made in television systems recently. Personal video recorders, such as those manufactured by TiVo, allow a user to easily record a television program, and also provide VCR-like controls for television programs. For example, see U.S. Pat. No. 6,259,441 (2001) to Ahmad et al., “Display pause with elastic playback,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,327,418 (2001) to Barton, “Method and apparatus implementing random access and time-based functions on a continuous stream of formatted digital data,” and U.S. Pat. No. 6,233,389 (2001) to Barton et al., “Multimedia time warping system”. However, these types of improvements have been optimized for the needs of the television viewer. For instance, this prior art focuses on improving the viewing of specific television programs.
Radio listeners typically have different needs than television viewers. For example, television viewing typically happens in a fixed environment in a home, while radio listening often happens in varied, often mobile, environments. People may listen to the radio in a shower. People often listen to radio in a car, or carry a radio on their person as they pursue other activities. A television viewer may sit and watch a program through its completion. A radio listener more often listens casually while pursuing other activities, and may often switch between stations based on hearing a short duration item, such as a song, commercial, or traffic/weather report. Program schedules are quire important to television viewers, but are rarely used by radio listeners.
A system is needed that allows a radio listener to better control the audio content she hears. For example, a listener may need a way to easily back up and hear something again. This might include, for example, repeating a piece of information from a weather report or a traffic report, a phone number or other item in an advertisement, a favorite song, or information about a radio contest.
A radio listener may also need a way to pause the radio content while doing something else. For example, a listener in a car may wish to pause a song while concentrating on traffic or talking to someone else in the car. After resuming the song, the listener may listen to the remainder of the song and then may subsequently wish to fast-forward through commercials to catch up to the real-time broadcast.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,345,430 (1994) to Moe, “Recovery recorder system, particularly commercial radio/TV broadcast recovery recorder system,” discloses continuously recording the last few minutes of a program being monitored to a short-term memory, and transferring it, on operator command, to a long-term storage media. U.S. Pat. No. 5,448,534 (1995) to Okada, “Radio with recording and reproducing function,” discloses detecting a desired program and starting a recording device to record the program. However, this prior art requires a user to select a specific radio station or program to record.
Because digitized audio content requires much less memory than digitized video content, it is less expensive to store a significant amount of radio content. A radio tuner is also less costly than a television tuner, so a system that monitors multiple radio stations at once is quite feasible. Because a radio listener is quite likely to be interested in the programming on multiple radio stations at the same time, a system with multiple tuners and significant but inexpensive memory is also quite useful.
For example, a system is needed that would allow a user to switch between multiple favorite radio stations and rewind to the start of an interesting piece of content that may have been missed, such as a favorite song or a traffic report. Because detailed radio content schedules are not typically published in advance, it would also be useful to have a system that allows a user to identify items of interest, that informs the user when an item of interest is being broadcast on another station, and that allows the user to switch to that station and rewind back to the start of the item.
Since radio listeners frequently sing along with favorite tunes in locations such as the shower and the car, a user may wish to sing along with a radio in a karaoke mode.
A system is also needed to recommend a set of radio stations to a user. This would be particularly useful for traveling users, or users new to an area. Such a system might allow a radio listener in a rental car or hotel to automatically search a database of radio stations and find one or more that matches his tastes. A driver on a long trip may need a system that automatically monitors available radio stations and compares the content with his likes.
Traveling listeners may also need a system to inform them of venues and events in an unfamiliar local area. For example, a listener may be interested in finding out about concerts, celebrity appearances, radio station events, concert venues, music stores, and the like.
Radio listeners often listen in multiple environments—in different rooms of the house, in the car, in the office, and using a portable system. These listeners need a system that allows them to use the advanced radio features in all of these environments. They need a way to transfer information, such as radio presets, favorite songs, and favorite artists, from one environment to another. They need a way to update the functionality of the radio without having to purchase a new system. They need a system that allows downloading of favorite songs into a radio.
Radio listeners also need an Internet environment to coordinate their enhanced radio listening activities. These activities might include finding out about music, shopping for music related products, and finding out about radio stations. They may also need a system that allows them to manage the information used in an enhanced radio system, such as favorite stations, artists, and songs.
A radio listener may also need a way to more easily respond to radio content. For example, a listener may wish to respond to an ad, enter a radio contest, call in to a radio talk show, or make a song request. The user may need a system that allows a telephone to be used with the radio system.
A radio listener also needs a way to more easily communicate with other radio listeners. A listener may wish to send information heard on the radio to another person. This information may include an invitation to or information about a concert or other event, a link to a radio station or radio show, a song heard on the radio, or other radio-related information.
In addition to radio listeners, radio service providers may also benefit from our invention. Radio service providers need a system that allows them to monitor the habits of their listeners' demographic profile such as which commercials they repeat, which artists they favor, etc., as well as what enhanced radio features their users may access.